I realise your priests do take the bread and wine into the homes of people who are sic or unable to attend service but, this seems to be standard in the early church, not reserved for the elderly and infirm.

« Last Edit: April 30, 2012, 11:25:09 AM by FountainPen »

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None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try. Mark Twain

I realise your priests do take the bread and wine into the homes of people who are sic or unable to attend service but, this seems to be standard in the early church, not reserved for the elderly and infirm.

Acts 2 is a rather unique time in the history of the Church. In this passage, St. Luke is talking about the weeks and months immediately following Pentecost. The Church has just gone from being a core group of disciples following a peripatetic Teacher around Judea to being the ecclesia of the Risen Lord. And its done so with a bang, making several thousand converts all at once, many of whom are not even local residents but were pilgrims in town for the feast and are now sticking around to learn what they've signed up for. The Church has lots of people, but no buildings of its own (particularly not buildings that could accomadate thousands of people at once) as it hasn't existed long enough to do so--instead, they are using the temple and people's homes.

Even today, it's not uncommon for a new mission to start as a house church with one or more congregants offering their house for reader's services and actual liturgy when a priest can visit. But as the community grows, they eventually look to acquire a more permanent and dedicated space for worship--the same process as happened in the first century.

For it were better to suffer everything, rather than divide the Church of God. Even martyrdom for the sake of preventing division would not be less glorious than for refusing to worship idols. - St. Dionysius the Great

As for taking eucharists home: yes, they did that early on. But it became problematic as people (I am told) began to invent superstitions about it, and otherwise abused the privilege. Much like public confession of sins, the practice went away.

You can still see vestiges of this today though. For example, Antiochians still take some of the Holy Unction home with them for future use. This does not happen among Russians. For whatever reason, the practice was never prohibited in Antioch and it still survives.

An example of superstition, about Unction, would be anointing clothes with it for good luck or something, which (I am told) happens in Romania, to the chagrin of the bishops. In ancient times, Christians may have put the Eucharist bread crumbs around their house to protect from demons, say.

This kind of misuse forces tighter restrictions on the administration of sacraments.

And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart (KJV)

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts (RSV)

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart (NKJV)

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts (NIV)

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts (ESV)

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart (NASB)

Daily also continuing with one accord in the temple, breaking also at every house bread, they were partaking of food in gladness and simplicity of heart (YLT)

We only see simplicity in the NKJV and YLT translations, followed by "of heart".

Just wanted to clarify that. If one ends with "simplicity" instead of "simplicity of heart", it could be taken to imply some sort of minimalist Eucharistic worship. There is also the context:

"And with many other words [Peter] testified and exhorted them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."

« Last Edit: May 01, 2012, 02:16:13 AM by NicholasMyra »

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